Wednesday, February 23, 2011

REAL LIFE HEROES ARE EVERYWHERE

As many of you are aware, yesterday Christchurch, New Zealand was struck by a 6.3 earthquake, buried only 5 feet underground.

It is the second of it's kind the city has faced in recent months, the last one in September was also an over 6 pointer, but buried further underground.

Aftershocks from the last quake have lasted right up to this one, meaning this shallower quake has caused greater damage to an already heavily weakened city infrastructure.

People are still trapped in rubble, and as people dig even with bare hands to help, the death toll is expected to rise significantly today. Allot of the old english architecture the city is known for is in ruins, buildings toppled and allot of people scared, shaken and worried.

So far we have assistance arriving from Australia, and more been sorted with America, England, Japan, the U.N, and other countries are supplying what they can to by the sounds of it including Israel.

As amazing stories of locals and tourists to the city chipping in to help complete strangers in need start to shine a dim light through the mass of horrific stats and stories coming from the disaster, already dubbed 'New Zealand's Darkest Day', I want to take this moment to put out a post of support to everyone in Canterbury, and the situation they are finding themselves landed with.

In the darkest, saddest times that confront us, the true heroes capable of the fantastic come from unexpected sources - and while it may never seem like it at the time, one of those places is you.

it still blows me away how NZ has only 4 million people! NZ's land area is a little bit bigger then half the size of California and about ten times that of Israel which has a population of nearly 7 million. i hope Israel will eventually send some disaster relief teams to NZ like they did to Haiti after their earthquake. in Haiti, Israel had set up the very first and most advanced field hospital of all the countries there. you tend to become quite good in the field of medicine when you're a tiny country that's encircled by those who want to annihilate you 24/7.so far at least one vacationing Israeli is among the casualties and the Chabad house (Jewish community center for Jews & non-Jews) of Christchurch was destroyed. at this point i haven't heard of any American deaths.God speed to the relief workers regardless of where ever they're from to getting to the buried people who are still alive. i can't imagine how horrible that must be.

Thanks again for all of that guys - really awesome to hear from each of you!

Craig - feel free to Facebook the link - it's always odd putting things into words in these times, so glad you like how it all came out!

@David - Australia - our brother country touched down almost first light this morning. Some buildings are almost been declared non survivable for the missing so time is again something the rescue teams just don't have enough of :(

As for the population - mate it's amazing. It really is cool how tight knit we are as a country and the space we have to be a people in. Wait till you visit, we might even grant you a complementary quarter acre ;D

Thanks for this post. I've seen some remarks on several Canadian forums today calling for rapid Cdn help for NZ. Thinking of your countrypeople's suffering and hope the rescuers are successful. The reports about the broken cathedral were awful.

Hope you and yours are safe and well. I spent a few anxious days waiting for word from my niece and her hubby (but they live just across the bay fron Aukland so they didn't have any issues). Having been through 3 quakes greater than 6.0, I know how terrifying that can be. There's nothign quite like the sensation of the ground shaking like jello under your feet.

Sadly Aliera the casualty number soared today and still hundreds are missing, thanks for your comments and thoughts though - there are some really awesome stories coming out of this that reflect allot of the spirit you guys are talking about.

ToB - yeah we have help from all over in the country at the moment including Singapore. As a wee nuclear free country we sure seem to have allot of friends in our time of need which is great.

The Cathedral in Christchurch was a major landmark. So many of the buildings their are that old english standard seeing them damaged is tragic in itself.

If you ever do get her Random - I will show you and your family around personally to all the good bits the tourist trails never wonder off to.

Baron - good to have you back on the blog! If it helps you I live 2 and a half hours drive from Auckland, so we to were outta the quakes way. Where I grew up though White Island is just off shore (google image search it folks) and as an offshore volcano we always had point 4-5's on a regular basis so I know all to well the feeling you are speaking of!

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